NEXT LEVEL TALENT
Local talent finding success at the Division I level
TROY, NY >> The achievement of being an athlete at the NCAA Div. I level is quite the victory, regardless of the sport the athlete has done it at.
Playing Division I Hockey is no exception and the commitment and sacrifice by every player at the level to do so is something that is not lost on hockey fans and its community.
From the Captial Region and the area that encompasses “Section II” High School sports in Upstate New York, just five players are currently from the area on one of the 60 rosters at the division one level.
Of those five, Jake Marello is the only one who plays for RPI, one of two local division one programs.
“My neighbor Sean Knowlton, who played at Albany Academy and the Gunnery, his dad was the old Athletic Director here, Jim Knowlton, so we grew up coming to these games,” said Marello. “We would go to the Mayor’s Cup, Black Friday, all those fun games, and it’s definitely a different perspective being from around here you get to see it and really live it and now being here is great.”
Knowlton now also plays Division I Hockey at Air Force.
Marello, a senior now, is having his best college hockey season yet. The Slingerlands, New York native has eight points this season. He has already eclipsed last year’s college hockey career high of a five point season.
“The line I have been on lately we have had some injuries so I have been moving around, but has been producing and we are playing well together and producing,” said Marello. “We have good chemistry and our team is confident in what we can do even though results haven’t been what we want. We are confident in what we do and we are playing together and that just leads to success for everyone involved.”
Knowlton, now a junior at Air Force, has four points this season, tying his point total last season. He missed his freshman season due to injury.
Knowlton played prep hockey at the Gunnery, which is where Marello transferred to for his senior year of prep hockey. Marello played three years for Albany Academy before the move.
“There was a little bit of uncertainty,” said Marello. “I was heading into my senior year and our coach was leaving at the time. I had one year left and it was a good decision. I definitely grew up moving away from home a little early. It was awesome and I had a great time there.”
After the Gunnery, Marello spent a season down in Long Island playing for the P.A.L Jr. Islanders of the USPHL Premier league. He was preparing for a move to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to continue his junior hockey career before a phone call came in that made him change his mind.
“It was late August and I was supposed to head out to Cedar Rapids in the USHL. Coach Appert had called and said, ‘We have an opening right now, something happened, would you come right now?” said Marello. “I was on my way to play another year of juniors and that was where I was mentally at. I was moving to Iowa in a week, school had already started here at RPI, but it was the best decision I ever made, being close to home.”
The rest is history for Marello. Every summer, he is able to meet up with a few friends, including ECAC rival, former Albany Academy team mate, and Latham Native Kevin O’Neil, who plays for Yale.
“It’s really cool and it’s something we never really expected,” said O’Neil on being able to play against Marello now. “Growing up we were always competing with each other and training in the summer. We were working out together and it was always a competitive friendship and it was to make each other better. It was never really expected, but it’s cool how it all worked out.”
O’Neil, a junior at Yale, has six points this season. He finished with 15 points last season and 11 in his first season. Since O’Neil began at Yale, Marello and RPI have beaten the Bulldogs just one time in seven meetings, including a Bulldog sweep in last year’s ECAC opening round meeting.
“It’s always cool to come back here and it’s a short trip for my parents,” said O’Neil on the chance to come back and face RPI and Union. “We get a bunch of family, friends, and people I grew up playing hockey with to come here. It’s cool I grew up coming to these games and watching the guys play out there, so now I get to be a part of that.”
O’Neil and Marello played together at Albany Academy for one season before Marello departed for the Gunnery. Prior to Albany Academy, O’Neil spent his freshman season with Shaker/Colonie, which is now the Capital District Jets Coop High School team.
After Academy, O’Neil started his junior hockey career in Madison, Wisconsin. To end the 2016-17 season, O’Neil was traded from Madison to Fargo, North Dakota. O’Neil played just 14 games and a playoff series with Fargo.
“It was the first time being away from home for that long,” said O’Neil. “I had a really nice billet family which helped the transition to everything. It’s definitely good to see how many players are out there and they are all trying to do the same thing you are doing.”
O’Neil’s commitment and hard work has paid off so far and he admits that sometimes, he just needs to take a step back and realize where he is at.
“It’s definitely something special and sometimes you have to take a step back and take it all in and realize how cool it is that you are there,” said O’Neil. “During the grind of the season if you’re not doing well, you can take a step back and look at it and say, ‘Hey, I’m playing hockey at Yale, it’s not that bad.’”
Adding to the list of players from the area is Nick Boyagian, a sophomore at Sacred Heart. Boyagian played five seasons at Albany Academy, three with O’Neil and three with Marello, before spending two seasons playing for the New Jersey Titans of the NAHL.
Boyagian had 18 points last season and five points this season as Sacred Heart cracks the Division I USCHO Top 20 for the first time in program history.
“It’s nice to get hockey more out there in hopes of improving hockey in our area,” said Boyagian. “Seeing how four of the five of us went to Albany Academy and moved on to play division one hockey, it’s pretty cool. Kevin, Shawn, Jake, and Connor [Murphy] are all great players so it’s pretty cool to skate and work out with them.”
Murphy rounds out the list. A goalie from Hudson Falls, Murphy spent a season playing for the Tri-Falls Rivermen before moving on to the C.P Dynamo out of Clifton Park.
Murphy is now a freshman at Northeastern with just one appearance against UMass on November 1.
There certainly is something special about this group, and having one another to train and push each other is certainly a factor in how all of them were able to continue their successful hockey careers. What also makes all of them so special is that they all have a drive to continue their hockey career.
“I would love to keep playing hockey,” said Marello on post hockey plans. “If I continue having a good year that’d be great and I’d love to move on and keep playing, but I am pretty confident after that I can use my degree to do something.”
“I’m trying to focus on the present and continue to get better everyday,” said O’Neil on if he saw himself playing hockey after college. “Focus on the next practice, the next game, and hopefully if I do that it slows down a little bit and hopefully it all works out.”
To be honest I haven’t thought about it too much yet,” said Boyagian on if he would coach after his college career was over. “It’s something I would be interested in, but right now I haven’t thought of that or anything other than playing hockey.”